You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You
by royslady51
Summary: Twenty-six year old Lisa Myers was a small town girl who had been raised in a one horse town...literally. The rest of the summary is part of the story...because it won't fit here.


**SUMMARY:** Twenty-six year old Lisa Myers was a small town girl who had been raised in a one horse town...literally. Alone now, when she wasn't working, her only two sources of entertainment was riding the young mustang stallion she'd raised from a foal, on cross country trips with her dogs, in the warm months and watching box sets of her favorite shows and series in the winter. But the Rockies were full of wonders and when one is known to be gone from home for months on end, it's not hard to convince yourself to let the best wonder of them all take you _and _your pony for a little ride...

**A/N: **I decided that the plotbunnies that helped the big one that bit me pin me down so he could infect me with this one, deserved a major role in the opening scene. They have center stage in a lovely funeralish way at _suppertime_.

_**You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You**_

(Just drop it, will you?)

She drew Nightwalker to a stop, staring at a sight that absolutely should not be _where _it was, nevermind _what _it was. She and her horse were over four hundred miles into the interior of the Western Rocky Mountain range, almost into the Cascades. There were no roads for more than two hundred of those miles, not even fire access roads. The only vehicles she might see, from time to time, were the overhead flybys made by the forestry department, either spot checking for fires or doing head counts on the animals that formed large herds. Sometimes, they dropped fat balls loaded with vaccinations for scavengers and predators, though the deer ate them too, sometimes, so vaccinations for hooved stock were also in the fat balls. She had an emergency radio with her, though the batteries were not loaded in it just now. No need to drain them, after all. In the boot of her saddle was a loaded rifle that matched the hunting and firearms licenses in her wallet. She was no prissy miss, not Lisa Myers, oh no...no little pink purses or bulky wallets for her. She used a man's billfold, it carried money, her identification, any paperwork and her credit cards...what more did she really need, after all? And it slid easily into to the right back pocket of her Levis, no need for purses, not this independent, hard riding, hard living girl.

At a scant five feet tall in her bare feet, she was slender but stronger than she looked...as she had to be to live like this. There were loaded saddlebags behind her, a lariat on the pommel of the well broken in, well used stock saddle she sat on, the stallion's reins gathered in case he wanted to try to shy or bolt at this strange looking thing that sat where it had no reason to be. She reached to the case that hung from her pommel and removed a pair of high powered binoculars, then scanned the area for anything not normally there...like a movie set. Because, with _that _there, there was absolutely no reason to think that there wouldn't be cameras and lots of invasive people here to destroy her peace and quiet.

But there was nothing, no one except herself, her horse, her two collies and that thing. She shivered, knowing that if she'd seen it in a city...or in a convention hall, she'd have wanted to get closer. She'd have wanted to look inside to see if it was really bigger on the inside. Out here, though? Out where there were a minimum number of ways for it to have gotten here to begin with, she had to at least entertain the thought that it might actually be what she thought it might be...and that was causing Lisa mental problems.

Because she thought she just _might _have gone crazy.

She couldn't sit like this all afternoon, though, staring at it, so eventually she clicked to her horse and called the dogs to heel as she moved her horse closer to the bluer than blue police box in the middle of an alpine meadow where it stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. She'd already shot a few rabbits since it was going to be dark in about two hours and had been looking for a good campsite...beside the...she hesitated since so far she'd avoided even thinking the word...but beside the suspected TARDIS would be safest, really. She swung out of her saddle next to it and ground hitched her horse while she got her picket and Nightwalker's line out. It was pretty long, though she'd still have to move it several times if she was here for long. Horses ate a lot and he would soon run through the age and kind of grasses he liked best. Lots of people thought that grazing animals ate any old kind of grass they could get, but Lisa knew that each kind of grazer liked different kinds of grasses at different growth stages. If she refused to move the picket, then he'd eat what he could get, if he got hungry enough, but more likely, Nightwalker would start complaining and keep it up until she moved the pin holding his line.

The dogs were there to warn _of_, warn _off _and help _defend against _predators as well as find water and being very good company. She left one dog there after she set out a campfire area and settled her gear near it, taking a canvas sheet with her after harnessing the other dog, she set off to go find firewood. She wasn't about to knock on that door...first, she was pretty sure she didn't really want to know and second..._if he was in there_, there must be a very good reason he wanted this specific kind of isolation. She didn't want to disturb the poor alien...he...if he was indeed in there, deserved whatever peace he could find. So she did what she always did when setting up camp for the night and then went to go gather firewood for the night. She only needed enough for cooking and for a few hours after dinner, her bedroll was plenty warm enough and the dogs tended to sleep over her legs or against her belly while her horse lay down before she did and she'd curl against his back. She'd be plenty warm; she always was.

**:DW:**

She skinned and cleaned her rabbits as the fire she had started burned down a bit, so the meat would cook but not char too much. If the fire were allowed to burn too hot or unevenly, the rabbits would be half charcoal and half raw...and all inedible. With edible herbs she'd gathered wild from the plants nearby, she seasoned the wild meat. Taking out a chunk of salt gotten from a natural formation a few days back, she chipped some off and put it away before taking a mortar and pestle from her saddle bags and grinding the chips of salt to a fine powder. She sprinkled it on the rabbits and then used the green branches she'd gathered with the firewood...oak, all of it, for the natural tannin it would add to the meat as it cooked, because really, it was just rude not to knock when dinner was ready and find out if he was there and wished to have dinner with her. She had plenty of wild foods to share, she thought as she covered groundnuts in wet river clay and buried them in the embers near the edge of the fire.

When it was nearly done, she finally spoke, to the entity she was almost convinced was in fact the TARDIS.

"Ask him if he'd like to join me for supper. It will be ready in a bit." She felt foolish speaking to the object nearby, but really, just how many logical ways were there for it to be _here_, of all places, to start with?

A few moments later, the door opened from the inside and he...for it was the Doctor...poked his head out. "Dinner? How did you get here...oh. A horse. And dogs...weeeeelll, yes, I suppose I will join you. What are we having?" The Tenth Doctor asked her.

"Rabbits, ground nuts and a few things I brought along. I go on cross country rides in the summers, see, so I have a few staples but mostly I just live off the land. Do bring flour, though so we have flatbread and bottled water is something I bring...you don't really want to know what the wildlife _do in the water_, seriously. E .Coli may be harmless to deer, but it really does a number on humans." She smiled up at him where she squatted next to her fire. Pull up a log...you are really the Tenth Doctor, aren't you? I thought I was going crazy. Didn't have any idea you were real, y'see."

"So...what changed your mind?"

"Couldn't think of any other logical explanation for a police box, here, when there wasn't any sign of anyone else here or having been here. Four hundred miles into the Western Rockies, almost into the Cascades and the nearest vehicular access is a dirt fire road two hundred miles nor'by nor'east of here." She snorted. "Trying to deny common sense to yourself _while at the same time _trying to convince yourself that imaginary people are _real _is a bummer, Doctor." She told him.

He burst out laughing, gleeful, mirth-filled laughter filled his eyes as he found a seat, watching as she carefully cleaned several flat rocks to cook the flatbread on and a few more to serve as plates. She moved quietly, with a minimum of fuss or motion, showing competence. She clearly loved wilderness or she wouldn't be here, with minimal supplies and on horseback with a pair of well trained dogs as all the company she had.

When she handed him a large flat rock with a metal spork, then laid a butterflied whole roasted rabbit on it, with the vegetable foods she'd either brought or gathered herself from the wild, the delicious smells rising from the food made his mouth water. "I wonder, if you'd like to..."

"Only if she has a stable...the dogs bunk with me. I don't have _much_, only what Nightwalker can carry, but what I _do _need, I have." She met his eyes calmly. "Only a fool would turn down such an offer by the greatest _hero _my species has ever known. But the animals are my family...as near to family as I have and I won't leave them." She told him firmly as shock filled his face when she called him a hero. She was well aware that's not how he saw himself but she figured it was high time that he understood what he meant to so very many people he'd never known, never would...wouldn't really want to, many of them...but that was neither here nor there.

"She does." He answered softly. "Have stables, that is."

"Very well then." She nodded, filling her flat stone plate and handing over half of the now done, piping hot flatbread to her new friend. "I need you to understand that I consider this an incredible honor, Doctor...particularly with you in _this _body." She added, making it very clear that she _knew _what regeneration was and that her earlier identifying statement was no accident. She knew he'd _flip _when he found out about the DVDs and the TV show. "Though, I wouldn't have minded the _serious _eye-candy you were in early Eighth, either...that hair." She sighed softly. "Yum! Always did love long hair on a man. The longer the better, actually. But this you is very easy on the eyes, too."

"You seem to know a great deal for someone I've never met before."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. You're right though, we've never met before now." She chuckled. "As much as you've seen, you still wouldn't believe _that_."

*** TBC ***


End file.
